Kent State responds to Michigan official’s ‘abhorrent’ tweet

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KENT, Ohio -- Kent State University on Saturday responded to a Michigan Republican Party representative who appears to be encouraging the shooting of protesters while making light of a painful moment in the university's history.

In a tweet and similar Facebook post, Dan Adamini, the secretary of the Marquette County Republican Party, wrote Thursday: "Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery."

His tweet comes after protests of a planned speech for BreitBart News senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos turned violent at the University of California Berkeley Wednesday.

"It's not okay to use Kent State as a punch line," said Eric Mansfield a university spokesperson.

"If there's one thing we should learn from Kent State it's that shooting bullets at students doesn't really solve anything," said student Benjamin Smith.

The university released the following statement in response:

"May 4, 1970, was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State University family. We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever. This abhorrent post is in poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still pains the Kent State community today. We invite the person who wrote this statement to tour our campus and our May 4 Visitors Center, which opened four years ago, to gain perspective on what happened 47 years ago and apply its meaning to the future."